American Idol 10, April 14 – Going Out on a Good Note

The American Idol results are going to be a tough one tonight. There’s the top three who should be safe, of Scotty, James, and Casey. Then there are the other five who are on the bubble. If Haley or Lauren go home, there will only be one female left in the competition. It’s hard to even comprehend. It could be yet another nailbiter.

It’s small group songs from the Idols again. First up are Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery singing Lady Antebellum’s American Honey. These two are great together just like last time they did a duet. And she looks absolutely gorgeous. Yellow is her color.

The idols are seen in a video this week “backstage” for their Ford video shot. Paul is upset that he didn’t get to dress up like a zombie like Stefano, James, Scotty, and Haley. Stefano is weirded out to have the white contacts put in. James has always wanted to do this, and it’s like a dream come true for him. Haley thinks she’s changing the way zombies look and feels sexy. The video is set to the song Animal. Paul and Casey are playing frisbee, and Lauren and Jacob are having a picnic, with the four of them being interrupted by the zombies.

Haley Reinhart and Casey Abrams do a jazzy duet singing Moanin’. This is so what she needs to be singing. It’ absolutely fantastic. If she wouldn’t have picked a Blondie song, and would have picked something like this from a movie, I think she wouldn’t be anywhere close to being on the bubble. Casey is great as well, but he always is.

Ryan Seacrest goes to the judges on this. Randy Jackson, in true Randy fashion, says “Haley, baby, that’s what is up. That’s how you do it. That’s what they love.” Jennifer Lopez adds that it sounded like they’ve been doing it all their lives. Steven Tyler tells them they just summed up what he always knew. Haley and Casey then take center stage with Lauren and Scotty for results. Scotty is called safe first, followed by Lauren and Casey. Haley is in the bottom three.

Rob Reiner met the Idols yesterday, and claims to be a huge fan of the show since the first year. He thinks there’s more talent this year than ever. Scotty admits to being a fan of many of his films. James, of course, is a fan of Spinal Tap. He tells them a song sometimes can set up an entire movie, and adds lyrics to the Chariots of Fire theme as an example. He discusses that Jennifer Hudson made the switch to movies and mentions that Carrie is as well, then jokes about From Justin to Kelly. Lauren thinks she could act if she dropped her accent. Casey mentions Jack Black is a inspiration, and Rob asks why he couldn’t be Seth Rogen’s bass-playing younger brother.

Kelly Clarkson makes her return to the Idol stage to sing a duet with Jason Aldean. They sing Don’t You Want to Stay. Kelly’s voice lends well to country. She doesn’t totally countrify it, but lends her pop/rock/soulish voice to it. After, she talks about tweeting that Casey was cute and says he’s delicious. Ryan mentions having to get right to it, to which she answers is just like a man. Mm-hmm. That would be the reason for all her relationship angst songs she writes.

Jacob Lusk, James Durbin, Paul McCreery, and Stefano Langone sing The Sound of Silence and Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate. Their four voices blend really well, and James and Jacob manage to keep their voices subdued. The four line up afterwards at center stage as James is called safe first. He looks genuinely relieved. Jacob is safe this week, while Paul and Stefano are the last two in the bottom three.

Rihanna sings California King, but no one really wants to hear it. We just want to know who’s going home. After they identify the final three, they just shouldn’t have any more performances. She explains that they’re building two sections on the stage for her tour so that the fans can be on the stage with her.

The bottom three take the stage, as Ryan mentions we’ve only seen girls go home so far. But this time, Haley is safe. It will be a guy going home for the first time. The first guy to leave is Paul. Someone’s swearing, as they keep taking ou the video. Stefano goes back and gets a giant hug from James as the crowd gets up on their feet for Paul. He feels thankful that America let him get this far.

Throughout his goodbye video, Paul is seen playing his guitar and yukking it up with James. He’s asked to sing one last time, and Jennifer makes a request to hear Maggie May. While he sings, Lauren is seen on the side crying. He comes by and high fives all the finalists and Ryan. I’m going to miss him. Apparently so are the other seven, as they wrap him up in a giant hug afterwards.

Nothing more needs to be said about this week. Paul went out perhaps a week or two too soon for some, but he went out on such a good note, with his trademark toothy grin and sincere nice guy ways that it seemed to soften the blow.

Don’t miss a single recap of this show or others. Sign up for the RSS Feeds. Read a daily list of what’s hot on TV at The Reality Shack Blog, entertainment news at Gather, and catch up on my movie reviews and other things by following me on Twitter.